Well, I think it's fair to say that the China strategy worked out for them, because just a few weeks ago as I pen these words they were reporting growth and good numbers on the old balance sheet.

So I was completely blown away when I heard the news that CEO and founder Nick Martin has been squeezed out – it seems the board and Nick had different views about the future of the company.

I personally think this is very, very sad. This company was Nick's baby. Way back in the early 1980s, Nick was living "Down Under" on the island of Tasmania. Nick required access to tools to design printed circuit boards, but such tools were jolly expensive at the time, so he designed his own. In 1985, Nick formed Protel, which subsequently became one of the major players in affordable, off-the-shelf PCB design tools.

In 2001 they adopted the name Altium and began to branch out into other areas, starting with PCB-FPGA co-design, and now all sorts of stuff like Cloud-based computing.

The "official" release from Altium is presented below. I'm sure the new CEO will be great. I'm sure Altium will do well in the future. But for myself, I am "as sick as a parrot" (as they say in England) with regard to the way Altium has treated Nick. It's their loss. I wish Nick all the very best for the future, and hope to see him again one day when we can quaff a few beers and talk more about Doctor Who (we both watched as kids from behind the sofas in our respective parent's houses).

---------- The Official Release Follows ----------

ALTIUM ANNOUNCES CEO DEPARTURE AND APPOINTMENT OF CEO

Sydney, Australia - 15 October 2012 - Electronics design software company Altium Limited (ASX:ALU) advises that Chief Executive Officer and Founder Mr Nick Martin has stepped down from his positions with the company with immediate effect and is replaced by Executive Vice Chairman, Mr Kayvan Oboudiyat, as CEO.

The Board of Altium wishes to sincerely thank Mr Martin for his tireless dedication to the company for over 25 years and wishes him well for the future as he pursues his personal endeavours.

While Altium has made considerable progress over the past twelve months, having relocated its global headquarters to China, and returning to profitability, it is the Board’s decision that it is in the best interests of Altium to adopt a different style of leadership with focus on returning value to shareholders.

Chairman of Altium, Mr Sam Weiss said, “Nick Martin has been a significant contributor to Altium over many years. Notwithstanding, it is the view of the Board that while Altium’s assets and technological innovation have always been strong, the company has under-performed against the opportunity”.

Altium has positioned itself on a path to transform itself from a traditional software company to a “software as a service company” that embraces the web. This has been achieved through the active pursuit of content driven subscription strategy and the acquisition of the required web-related technologies and their subsequent development direction.

These achievements along with Altium’s relocation to China provide an opportunity for Altium to be a key player in the emerging Electronic Design Tools market that is built around web-enabled devices. The Board has recognised that for this opportunity to be fully realised, Altium must commit to the achievement of profitability that is sustainable over the long-term.

Mr Weiss further stated that “as a Board, we are pleased to be able to appoint Mr Kayvan Oboudiyat as our CEO and achieve a successful and seamless change to leadership. As Executive Vice Chairman, with over 15 years experience with Altium, Kayvan understands the company well”. Altium also intends to undertake a search to identify a suitable external candidate to join the leadership team, and will advise further at the time of any such appointment."

If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).

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The thing that's missing here is that it's easy turn over leadership in any company and go on saying "this guy stinks, this is wrong, that's wrong, blah, blah" but that is all hindsight. The benefits of which are pretty clear. It's not the next 6 months that'll determine Altium's future but the next 1-3 years, after the ideas run out and someone has to dream up new ones. That's what failed apple after Jobs got sacked and they ended up hiring him back just as soon as they realised it. Now I'm not saying it can't be done but I don't see any engineers on the board of the company. Mr Martin was an engineer and a visionary byt he looks of things. Sure they had some whacky ideas over the years but most were pretty good. Weve used it and like what parts we use and ignore the parts we dont. I never used there FPGA tools when they came out but wouldn't do without them today. Same for 3D. My big hope is that Altium doesn't go the way of Apple when Jobs got the boot. Sure they listened to customers and made shareholders happy but the products were crap. When iMac came out after Jobs was back, it took them almost 20 years to get their feet back. I'm not sure Altium can survive something like that.

So there is no misunderstanding.
I do speak to Altium staff and management over many years, 20+, including the CEO on the odd occasion, though his replies have been close to useless and that’s when he bothers to reply. I speak to those in China and as recent as last week. As a shareholder, with a little under 1%, I will get to vote my wishes as will anyone else who is a shareholder (part owner) of the company. If you own shares then you can vote too.
I’m also in contact with many shareholders and we all have a good understanding of what is going on.
If I’m so far off base, then why has the board unanimously said they will vote for his removal. The very people that have worked alongside him for many years, some going back to the eighties.

You go on to make numerous off base statements in regards to the CEO, which sadly just show your personal vendetta, based on I’m assuming, what you read on the internet.
“IMO when one of the CEO's houses is worth more than the market capital of the company, then we have a problem.”
Again, I don’t know who you’re speaking of? As far as I know, Nick Martin doesn’t own a house of any kind, let alone multiples. Unless there is some other hidden CEO at Altium that nobody else knows about?
I would love to know where you get such inaccurate information :)?

Darren, I have stated that you’re lying because you have posted a number of “facts” about Altium that are far from correct. You question my interest in the company, yet I don’t see why?
As stated, I worked for Altium. I know a number of the individuals who work there and have worked there for 10+ years. Many of these individuals followed Altium to China. I dislike lying at the best of times, and especially when it is nothing more than bullshit slander, aimed at a company I know and care about, and a individual I respect greatly.
You seem to think that the company is some sort of dictatorship, where Nick ignored everyone, spends money and does whatever he wants.
“the CEO kept on spending every last cent of whatever his latest great idea might be."
I think you’ll find that is very far from the truth, and to be honest if you understood any small part of what running a company entailed, you would understand why that is ridiculous.
Every decision the company makes goes through many stages before even the start of any sort of work commences.
You state that
"The company ran on fear, fear of losing your job should you speak out with views not aligned to the CEO. "
Yet Altium has never and will never be run that way with Nick Martin in charge.
If you had worked at Altium, or even spoken to someone who has worked there, you would know that the work environment is fantastic. Nick is always approachable, even by the "lowest" employee. He also would and has never fired anyone because they “disagreed.”

IMO when one of the CEO's houses is worth more than the market capital of the company, then we have a problem.
The company has an obligation to keep the market (shareholders) informed, Altium have the poorest track record on that front.
BTW you are completely wrong about me, I have always had Altiums and its customers interests at the top of my list. I am a customer and I am a shareholder. If you really know who I am, then you would know that, maybe you should do more than a small amount of investigation.
You seem to have a strong interest in a company you no longer work for. Maybe you should declare you interest ?
Feel free to correct me on the lies. I'm all ears.

Upon a small amount of further investigation, it turns out Mr DJam (or Darren M.) is lying :(.
He is (or was?) a shareholder at Altium and has never worked there. He was no doubt financially hurt many years ago when the stocks failed.
All his comments regarding the CEO and attitude at Altium are 100% off base, and I'm assuming come from his anger at that previous financial loss. Its very sad that this was cause such anger towards the company, and cause him to spread lies.

Im not Nick (he wouldn't hide behind another name :) ), and I'm not a lawyer. I mean really, a lawyer named Muffin_chops?
I did however work at Altium for a long time, and I know pretty much everyone who worked there :) Including a number of employees who are in China currently. So its likely we have indeed met.
Its also not "Mr".